With The Great Misdirect, it seems that Between the Buried and Me have no interest in being associated with the metalcore scene they once dominated. Instead, it seems like they're more interested in being associated with progressive metal giants like Dream Theater and Opeth (who they shared the stage with not one year ago). The Great Misdirect is filled to the brim with guitar solos, time-changes on a dime, and more genre-hopping than Colors, only this time it feels much less forced. While BTBAM's latest isn't quite as ambitious as their previous outing, it's still an incredibly impressive album that just shows the band becoming even more comfortable in their own shoes and realizing just how damn talented they really are. Plus, the drum solo in "Swim to the Moon" is worth just about anyone's attention.

I didn't like it that much at first, but damn this album is up there with the likes of "The Silent Circus" (but not quite there). Easily my favorite album of the year... this album is just so much fun from start to finish. Whether your going into a trance with the opening Mirrors, or jamming out to the groovy breakdown in Disease, Injury, Madness... or even headbanging to the most epic riff BTBAM have ever written 13:15 into Swim to the Moon, you will be thoroughly enjoying yourself the entire time.

It's a Between the Buried and Me album, which means there's some cool parts, some laughably bad stuff, a ton of semi-coherent wank, and Tommy Rogers' still bad harsh vocals. This could be excellent if it was half the length, but as it is it's just acceptable.

Munro srtikes the nail; Between the Buried and Me finally pursue coherence and discover its beauty. There's a deserted tumbleweed sound all over this record that makes it fitting for both where the band are, and where they've come from initially. Sure, "Swim to the Moon" is total overkill (and Thor, the drum solo is pretty stock actually), but the rest is both beautiful and intense enough to leave this listener totally satisfied.

Not exactly a far cry from Colours (not that that's a bad thing by any means) The Great Misdirect finds BtBaM somewhat building on their sound (is that even possible anymore?). Regardless, they've put forth another fantastic record, though at points it seems to meander and I question some of the lengths of the songs. Still, this is a nice addition to the band's discography. Rating: 3.8/5

I really don't feel like re-uping a soundoff about sex so w/e I'll just say that it pretty much rules but Swim to the Moon is so long I can feel myself getting older during that overly indulgent section in the middle but Goosebumps is on so I can't really keep my focus long enough to talk the album anymore. Night of the Living Dummy rules. But not as much as The Great Misdirect.

Highly polished and extremely ambitious, but with a little more reserve than their previous releases, The Great Misdirect is Between The Buried And Me's most progressive album to date.

Any BTBAM fans listening to this album will be happy to find that they have strongly retained their style - they are as aggressive and ambitious as ever. However, their death metal antics are more concentrated on The Great Misdirect than their previous albums. Between The Buried And Me have changed their song formula from their black and white genre shifts to a more fluid style. BTBAM were never known for their song coherence, and this album won't change their identity. However, BTBAM have started to ditch their rigid shifts in sound in exchange for more fluent, cohesive advances in sound and style. This makes The Great Misdirect BTBAM's most progressive album to date.

Death metal purists, fear not. Our favorite North Carolina axemen shred to death on this album. The drumming is arguably better than it's ever been, and Tommy's vocals retain the same balance of aggression and melody we've known him for. While this is more progressive than earlier releases, BTBAM do not sacrifice quility for accessibility.

For the fans who may have not been able to stomach BTBAM's earlier style, they may find themselves reborn into the band with The Great Misdirect. For all others, everything you know and love about BTBAM is retained and applied with a more stylistic and progressive tone.

Between the Buried and Me have never been so inspired. Well, that's a lie actually; Colors saw the group being as ambitious as possible, but that resulted in great results being a little overblown. However, here the formula that the group previously strived for is perfected, and is the most enjoyable album that the group have concocted thus far.

Well what d'ya know? A 6 song masterpiece. Yes, I use that word a lot. That's why these albums are at the top! BTBAM did it again. I'm sure a lot of people didn't think it was possible to follow "Colors" up with anything but a crushing disappointment. But of course, we are talking about BTBAM here...

BTBAM widens the dynamics yet again, as they did with Colors. In the process, they've lost a few fans looking for an all-out assault. Instead, they've held true to innovative songwriting, and aren't about to stop or change direction based on the opinion of a few fans. It seems they're still writing for themselves, and that's always a good thing.

I severely underrated this album. It's an instant classic, and lord knows what I was thinking when I rated it a 4. That was stupid of me, but I recant my earlier indiscretions in favour of salvation through a 5 rating.

I never got into these guys before...I think that this album is a great album for people who don't normally like metal to get introduced to it. I love love love it...its great from beginning to end and it didn't bore me once.

I can see where all the hate is coming from, but it just doesn't make much sense to me. The album is as coherent as Between The Buried and Me has always been, so I'm not sure why the expectations had been something other than their style. That being said, I absolutely adore this album, and definitely felt the cohesive theme (almost a lost/constant thought-type vibe. Very cool). Not to mention the musicianship was out of this world! I think my biggest question now is... how in the hell are they going to top this?

Engaging, twisting, and addicting. Shows progression and versatility with tracks like "Mirrors" and "Desert of Song". Not as 'technical' as Colors, but The Great Misdirect surpasses it in every other way.

Between the Buried and Me brought it to the table, again. In Colors everything kind of went in different musical directions through-out the album, but don't get me wrong it was a great album, obviously. The Great Misdirect brings out instant recongnization of BTBAM , each song has it's own flow and emphasis in the sound of each song, it's ***ing amazing. The lyrics really get you thinking. In the past you could relate to the songs easily, i.e. Roboturner. But this album really pushes the meanings, Obfuscation being about brains, Fossil Genera being about the Freemasons or some ***. The uniqueness BTBAM has in the songs are so recongnizable, you can tell each song apart from one another, nothing sounds the same in almost any aspect. Swim to the Moon is an epic song but it could probably have ended 8-9 minutes earlier, and the ending sort of disappointed me at first, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Yet another classic, genre defying album from BTBAM. Go out and buy this, now.

I didn't like it that much at first, but damn this album is up there with the likes of "The Silent Circus" (but not quite there). Easily my favorite album of the year... this album is just so much fun from start to finish. Whether your going into a trance with the opening Mirrors, or jamming out to the groovy breakdown in Disease, Injury, Madness... or even headbanging to the most epic riff BTBAM have ever written 13:15 into Swim to the Moon, you will be thoroughly enjoying yourself the entire time.

This took a while to grow on me. It essentially would have taken a miracle for the band to surpass the bar they've rset for themselves with Colors, and we all know how often miracles come around. It's overall an excellent album, rbut has its obvious flaws. "Desert of Song" does nothing to The Great Misdirect's benefit except give you time to get ryourself a beer from the fridge or smoke a cigarette. The rest of the tracks are awesome, but at times show the rband getting a bit stale ("Obfuscation" sounds like a Colors b-side) and pretentious (some of the segments and rtransitions on "Disease, Injury, Madness" and "Fossil Genera" are sub-par for BTBAM standards, disrupting flow and rgiving the songs a sort of "We're trying to write a long song" feel). "Swim to the Moon" is an indication that the band rstill has the ability to blow listeners away. It's like a mini Colors - it flows extremely well and takes listeners on a rworth-while auditory trip. At the same time, it also shows what the rest of The Great Misdirect could have been.

To me, this album is better than Colors. Less bull and weird transitions but I might just be saying that because after two years of Colors I've analyzed everything on it so much that it's annoying to me now. Of course I still enjoy listening to Colors but not as constantly as I did in the past.
However, I have to say that The Great Misdirect is to Color as A Perfect Circle's Thirteenth Step was to Mer De Noms. It is equally proficient. But BTBAM is still young and this album did present a refinement in songwriting and a musical maturity.
I really like Fossil Genera and Desert of Song. They might not even sound like BTBAM at all - more like Dimmu Borgir, Alice in Chains, or Mars Volta - but every song is distinctly theirs. And besides that, isn't the point of being BTBAM to not be tethered to the usual.

BtBaM continue thier foray into an unmistakable attempt at Dream Theater-inspired prog mixed with thier continually innovative take on the deathcore/death metal genres, with varied results. 'The Great Misdirect' is undoubtedly thier most focused record to date, and the band sound more comfortable with what they are doing even more than that on 'Colors', but the entire captivation of thier undeniable opus isn't as apparent on first listen of thier latest effort.

While it did not capture the raw emotion of Colors or the 'in-your-face' attitude of The Silent Circus, The Great Misdirect is a step forward for Between the Buried and Me, as it takes the Colors formula and adds even more musical diversity while taking away the slight flaws that Colors may have had. I personally cannot decide whether or not this is better than the great Colors, but both are amazing and this is yet another step forward for a brilliant band. No joke, probably my favorite progressive metal record of the decade besides Blackwater Park.

Between the Buried and Me have combined everything good about their previous albums into one completely impressive, complex, and accessibile recording. The Great Misdirect is a personal standout of 2009 for me and has totally blown my expectations away. Not sure how I like it compared to Colors but it could very well end up being my favorite release by BTBAM.

do you know that BTBAM's myspace says the release date in October 26th ? obviously its a mistake because tuesdays are release days, but i think reviews should be able to be posted now ! my preorder came in on saturday and i think this cd clicked on the third time for me. do not be discouraged by the first listen. this is really good.

The long awaited new BTBAM album, with a few suprises, such as the superb Fossil Genera, and various prog influences, the album may dissapoint COLORS fans, there just arent enough epic parts. The weakest point is definatly Swim to The Moon, which is also the longest song.

While IMO this doesn't top the ambition and overall feel of Colors, The Great Misdirect is easily BTBAM's most fluid, cohesive listen yet. The tech is off the charts and I'm happy they're putting the metalcore on the backburner for a more progressive sound. Really really awesome stuff.

Apparently I should've saved my soundoff. Not really up to writing it rover but this album is definitely worth the hype if you're a BTBAM fan like myself. Has the potential to rbecome one rof, if not their strongest release.r*insert sexual metaphor related to the listener's experience listening to the album here*

Like a contaminated garden occupied by weakened angels, at least half of The Great Misdirect disgruntles me. I can understand Tommy Rogers and the rest of the BTBAM entourage naturally progressing from the epic masterpiece that was Colors, though the results in the end weren't all too pleasurable. Don't try to misunderstand: I personally think Between the Buried and Me's fifth studio album is an admirable treasure in the band's catalog, and it has noteworthy aspects such as Chuck Johnson's cameo on the record closer "Swim to the Moon" (excellent song, by the way) and the beginning of "Fossil Genera - A Feed from Cloud Mountain" can undoubtedly prepare some anuses out there. As a whole, The Great Misdirect is far from a terrible release and provides overall focused musicianship, though in comparison to past offerings, something about this feels vacant; it's almost like the North Carolina-based outfit tried way too hard with delivering a follow-up.

While this wasn't the first BTBAM record that I had ever heard, it was the first BTBAM record that was released after I had already gotten into the band. I picked The Great Misdirect up (along with Converge's Axe To Fall) at an FYE during a lengthy trip to a marching band festival during my sophomore year of high school. I remember jamming the 5.1 mix in the wee morning hours after I had gotten back, and I was blown away. I have always seen this album as a continuation of the style that was presented on Colors, but the end result is more refined and in turn, more adventurous and fun. The Great Misdirect isn't as influential as its predecessor and it's certainly not a classic within the genre of progressive metal, but its one of the most enjoyable experiences that I have ever had with a progressive metal record.

Experimentation is usually good but it seems like BtBaM over did it on this one. None of their raw intensity or brutality is portrayed here. This just seems like an extremely watered down version of Colors or Alaska.

I view this as on the same level or even ABOVE colors. The songwriting is spot on, and there are so many memorable moments on the album. Mirrors is an absolutely amazing way to start an album, and fossil genera is just fuck yeah.

I think that it's impossible for Between the Buried and Me to top 'Colors', but 'The Great Misdirect' is an excellent follow-up that simultaneously keeps BTBAM's signature style while exploring new possibilities. "Fossil Genera" and "Desert of Song" are my favorites, and the only gripe I have is the length of "Swim to the Moon". Check out: "Fossil Genera", "Desert of Song", "Obfuscation", "Disease, Injury, Madness"

I'm glad they decided to expand on their progressive elements more, makes it an almost perfect album. The only reason I wouldn't give it a 5 is because Swim to the Moon could really be much more effective if they chopped 2 or 3 minutes out of the middle. Perfect blend of everything that made their previous albums awesome.